The national minimum wage in Cyprus is €979 gross a month when you are hired, rising to €1,088 gross once you have completed six continuous months with the same employer. Both figures took effect on 1 January 2026 and apply to full-time employment. Four groups of workers sit outside the decree altogether, and the monthly figure on its own tells you very little about what reaches your bank account.
Where the 2026 figures come from
The rates are set by decree of the Council of Ministers, following a decision on 23 December 2025, under the Minimum Wage Law, Cap. 183. That law gives the Council of Ministers power to fix minimum pay for occupations it specifies, which is why Cyprus wage floors arrive as decrees rather than as amendments to a wage act.
The new figures replaced €900 on hiring and €1,000 after six months. Cyprus had no general statutory minimum at all until January 2023, when the first national decree took effect; before that, pay floors existed only for a handful of occupations and in registered collective agreements. Press reporting of the Ministry of Labour's own briefing put the number of workers affected by the 2026 uplift at around 50,000.
Two details in the decree catch employers out. The six-month qualifying period runs with the same employer, so changing jobs restarts it. And the decree fixes money, not time: it does not define what full-time means, and normal full-time hours for each sector stay exactly as they were.
Who the decree does not cover
The national minimum wage does not apply to:
- hotel industry staff
- domestic workers
- agricultural and farming workers
- workers at sea
Hotels are not unregulated, they are separately regulated. Minimum pay in the sector comes from its own decree, K.Δ.Π. 55/2025, which sets role-by-role rates for 19 hotel occupations based on a 38-hour, five-day week, and raised them by 3.54% with effect from 1 January 2025. If you work in a hotel, the figure that governs your pay is the one for your job title in that decree, not €1,088.
For the other three groups, pay is whatever your contract or an applicable collective agreement says. That is a real gap, and it is one of the points the reform discussed below is meant to address.
What actually lands in your account
Two deductions come off a Cyprus salary before you see it, and they are calculated and administered separately from income tax.
| Deduction | Employee rate | On €1,088 |
|---|---|---|
| Social insurance | 8.8% | €95.74 |
| General Healthcare System (GeSY) | 2.65% | €28.83 |
That leaves roughly €963 a month. Income tax takes nothing: the 2026 reform lifted the tax-free threshold to €22,000, and a full year on the minimum wage comes to €13,056, well below it. Our guide to Cyprus tax rates for 2026 sets out the bands, and the income tax calculator will model a higher salary if you are comparing offers.
Employers pay more than the headline figure too. On top of the gross wage they contribute 8.8% social insurance and 2.90% GeSY, plus contributions to the Social Cohesion Fund, the Redundancy Fund and the Human Resource Development Authority. Budget for roughly 15% above gross when you are costing a hire.
The 13th salary and the cost of living allowance
Cyprus has no statutory 13th salary. It is common, usually paid in December, but it is a creature of contract rather than legislation. Once it appears in your employment contract, in a collective agreement covering your employer, or in a settled company practice, it becomes an enforceable term and withholding it is a wages claim like any other.
The cost of living allowance, known locally as ATA, is also contractual, and it changed in November 2025. A permanent agreement signed on 13 November 2025 between the government, employers' federations and the unions restores the allowance in stages: from 66.7% of the relevant price index movement to 80% in January 2026, 90% in July 2026, and 100% from July 2027, with annual adjustment each July. A ceiling of 4% inflation now caps the calculation, and future minimum wage reviews are tied to the same two-year cycle. The agreement binds businesses where ATA already forms part of the terms of employment. It does not create the allowance where it never existed.
The rest of the statutory floor
Pay is one of several minimums, and the others apply to everyone in the private sector regardless of which wage decree covers them.
- 1Hours. Under the Organisation of Working Time Law 63(I)/2002, average weekly working time including overtime must not exceed 48 hours, measured over a four-month reference period that a collective agreement can extend. Daily rest is at least 11 consecutive hours, and anyone working more than six hours in a day is entitled to a break of at least 30 minutes.
- 2Annual leave. The Annual Holidays with Pay Law, Cap. 8, gives 20 working days of paid leave on a five-day week and 24 on a six-day week, for employees who have worked at least 48 weeks in the year. Public holidays sit outside that count where the contract provides for them.
- 3Written terms. The Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Law 25(I)/2023, in force since 13 April 2023, requires the essential terms of the job in writing within seven days of the start date, down from a month under the old law. It also capped probation at six months. A breach carries a fine of up to €5,500.
If you have arrived recently and are still sorting out registration and permits, the sequence is covered in our guide to moving to Cyprus from the UK.
If you are being paid less than the decree
Underpayment is not merely a contractual argument. Labour inspectors from the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance can enter workplaces without notice and inspect payroll records, and failing to pay a wage set by the Council of Ministers is a criminal offence.
The forum for a personal claim is the Labour Disputes Court, which also handles dismissal. Under the Termination of Employment Law 24/1967, an employee with 26 weeks of continuous service can claim for unfair dismissal, and compensation can run to two years' pay, with the redundancy payment as the floor. Statutory notice on the employer's side starts at one week for 26 to 51 weeks of service and reaches eight weeks past 312 weeks, with pay in lieu permitted. Redundancy itself is paid from the state Redundancy Fund on a service-based scale.
Claims are time-limited and the paperwork matters, so if you are in this position, take advice from an employment lawyer before you resign rather than after.
The reform that is still coming
Cyprus is one of the last EU member states to transpose Directive (EU) 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages. A bill published in March 2026 would repeal Cap. 183 and every decree made under it, replacing ministerial discretion with a mandatory review every two years, run by a tripartite wage adjustment committee working to recognised benchmarks such as 60% of the gross median wage and 50% of the gross average. It would also give inspectors express powers, raise penalties for wage offences to €10,000 or two years' imprisonment, add daily fines for continuing breaches, and bar convicted companies from public contracts for three years.
It had not been enacted when this guide was written in July 2026, and the sectoral exclusions are among the contested points. Until it passes, the decree and Cap. 183 are what govern your pay.
Not sure your Cyprus contract meets the legal minimum? Browse the directory for an employment lawyer who handles wage and dismissal claims, and get the position checked before the Labour Disputes Court's time limits start working against you.